Space Travel in United Trowo
Note: This article is discussing the methods of space travel used in the conworld of Trowo and its related universe, not just the methods of space travel used in the republic of United Trowo. Technology here is based upon conventional physics as well as some... suspension of it. They are marked with a * Space Travel in United Trowo'' since the year 160 has largely been dependent on 2 key technologies: Warp Engines and Wormholes. Travel within individual systems is still reliant on solar sails, continuous fusion and plasma engines. Ground to Low-orbit Travelling in space first requires getting to low orbit from the ground. This can be achieved through different methods, with each offering its advantages and disadvantages. 'Spaceport Types' There are 4 types of spaceports in United Trowo #Conventional spaceport - Type Sy (for ''Syail, Unitican for ground. Sy is a single letter in Unitican) #Airport-spaceport - Type W (for War, Unitican for sky) #Orbital ring spaceport - Type S (for Swal, Unitican for ring) #Micro-G spaceport - Type D (for Dexousy, Unitican for space) 'Climbers with mass-launch' Due to costs and dangers involved with direct launches (chemical rockets), the majority of Trowoese citizens utilize the orbital ring Guldian and its associated climbers to reach an altitude of 80km, before being launched by a mass-driver into orbit. There are several cities located under Guldian, but the most popular city is Suaes, with offers many climbers and a comparatively low cost for using them. Suaes Terminus on Guldian also offers many facilities, such as a Type S space-port, 15 mass-driver stations, a hyperloop station, accomodation and recreational facilities. 'Air-to-space launch' Air-to-space launch involves the usage of the different types of engines subsequently to reach orbital velocities. This method is safer than a traditional launch sequence, and can be cheaper if carrying more passengers. Vehicles capable of air-to-space launches are known as Wardexkruz ''in Unitican, translated as "Aerosplane". They are typically very large vehicles, with a passenger capacity of 1500. They have small wings (for their size) that, in complement with the lift produced by the body of the aerosplane itself, lifts the vehicle off the ground to the low strastosphere with concealed turbofans. At around 12 km and 800km/h, the turbofans cut off and the intake is covered by panels. An aerospike then activates and brings the aerosplane to the remaining distance to low orbit. The aerosplane will dock with orbiting space stations and unload/load up with new passengers. The vehicle will then fall back to Trowo under the influence of gravity at over 20 mach, and glide back to a spaceport. 'Conventional Launch' Conventional launches are used rarely on Trowo and other core systems, but are common on low-gravity worlds with no atmosphere and on the colonies; they have not had the time to build other types of spaceports. Intra-system travel Travelling within individual systems is restricted by law to utilize sub-light speed propulsion methods. Since the year 160, the main travel methods are chemical propulsion (at least to geostationary orbit), solar sails, plasma engines, continuous fusion, pulsed fusion and ion drives. 'Chemical Propulsion' Chemical propulsion is the usage of chemical reactions to generate thrust. Modern chemical propulsion rockets typically involve Liquid Oxygen (LOX) and Liquid Hydrogen, LOX and methane or LOX and kerosene. Chemical propulsion rockets that are used for direct launches to the outer planets may also use exotic Metallic Hydrogen and LOX instead. Chemical rockets are typically used only for express launches for those people/goods who need to get to other systems fast as they bypass intermediary travel times (such as travelling to the Orbital Ring). 'Solar Sails' Solar sails are used primarily to get to wormhole gates at the outer solar system and almost used solely for that purpose. They catch the solar wind and light pressure from the local star and are push because of it. Their initial movement may be accelerated with chemical propulsion due to its slow start. 'Plasma Engines' Plasma engines such as VASIMIR utilize radio waves to ionize gas, which is then accelerated out of the nozzle with magnetic fields. They may achieve speeds up to 0.1c within solar systems with modern power plants and engines. This combined with their relatively high specific impulse makes them one of the top choices for short intra-system travel. 'Continuous Fusion' Continuous fusion involves the fusion of Hydrogen (specifically Helium-3 and Deuterium) in a stellarator. After some of the thermal energy is extracted, the high speed exhaust is directed out of the nozzle to produce a large amount of thrust. Due to its relatively light fuel, it is the most ubiquitous intra-system propulsion method, limited only by the efficiency and mass of its fusion engine. Typically larger engines are more efficient, but that comes at the cost of increased mass. 'Pulsed Fusion' Pulsed fusion refers to the usage of thermonuclear detonations at the rear of the spacecraft (on a pusher plate) that pushes the spacecraft forwards. This used to be a common method of propulsion before the advent of continuous fusion, but with stricter laws on thermonuclear detonations in space, this method has all but vanished. Inter-system travel Inter-system travel are split into 3 types: Faster-than-light, sub-light and wormholes 'Faster-than-light' Faster-than-light travel is a slight misnomer as even though the spacecraft appears to be travelling faster than light, the spacecraft is not travelling through space faster than light. Warp drives allow space to be contracted in front and casimir drives* allow space to be slightly expanded behind (though no where near the intensity of the contraction infront), and the craft effectively "surfs" this "wave". Warp drives have extremely high energy consumptions, equivalent to a atomic bomb going off every few minutes. Only the largest of spacecrafts are capable of warp drives, and those crafts are usually referred to as ''Carriers. Smaller warp-incapable ships dock inside of them and the larger craft warps them to their desired system. The most advanced warp drives can reach speeds of up to 650c, but only the largest ships with the highest classes of power plants can sustain the energy requirements. Warp drives also have the tendency to release trapped particles in their contracted space ahead of them at their destination. The longer the drive is turned on, the more particles get trapped inside. Over a distance of a few light-years, this results in a release in energy equivalent to 10 Tsar Bombs. This combined with the fact that warp drives curve space-time means that they are only authorized to be used outside of stellar systems, as they may potentially perturb planetary orbits and destroy orbital installations. However as warp drives naturally struggle to work in regions with high space-time curvature, they naturally slow down as they approach massive celestial bodies. This devalues warp drives as a means of a weapon of mass destruction, though they can still do an incredible amount of damage. Pilot mental health screening and semi-AIs are used in tandem to prevent such events from taking place. Plotting of the most efficient route to take is an important aspect of travelling by warp drive, as areas of high gravitional curvature slow down the potential top speed of a craft. Warp routes are paths charted out by probes, previous ships and AIs to be the fastest possible path between 2 points, and warp travel typically occurs along these paths. These paths constantly change based on the movement of celestial objects and new data. Because some routes are extremely long (potentially over 100 ly in length), the data could be outdated if no new ships transverse the path in a long time. Ships also sell this data to navigation companies. The most travelled paths usually have automated clearing robots to reduce the presence of interstellar debris. 'Sub-light' Sub-light travel try to take advantage of the fact that travelling at high speed causes time-dilation, allowing a trip that would seem to an observer to take a certain amount of time to actually have taken less for those on board. This form of travel is primarily used for exploration and science research, as travel beyond 0.75c for too long may result in the complete change of society when one arrives back. Nowadays, this form of travel is almost solely used by interstellar probes conducting surveys and reconnaisance. 'Wormholes*' Wormholes are shortcuts in a higher spatial dimension. Every single one thus far is artificial, as natural ones tend to immediately collapse after formation. Wormholes may not be necessarily possible between any 2 positions in space, as they might be no short cut between those 2 points in the higher dimension. The are formed by creating kugelblitzes in the future "openings" and kept open through warp fields. Due to their extremely delicate nature (they are naturally unstable), ships with warp drives are not permitted to transverse through wormholes, as they might collapse them and leave ships within stranded in the higher dimension. Wormholes take a visual apperance of a huge distorted sphere, akin to a black hole. They are typically 30 000km in diameter. Wormholes typically have masses approaching that of Neptune, and are therefore positioned outside the stellar system to minimize gravitational perturbations to celestial bodies within the system. Once passing through the sphere of influence of the wormhole, a ship "falls" in and does simple trajectory corrections. When leaving then wormhole, one needs to boost their way out, with a minimum of 10% the speed of light to escape the gravitational field. Wormholes in United Trowo are heavily guarded and patrolled. A slight deviation from projected course will be given a single warning and 10s to react before being destroyed by the guard forces. Wormholes also orbit the system's center of mass, and are not 'stationary'. *Despite beliefs that they are instant shortcuts, wormholes have a distance factor that might mean that warp-drive powered ships might actually make the trip faster than a sub-light ship through a wormhole. The only artificial wormhole used in the Trowo-Zebrinse-Xy'Raho wormhole, which is said to have been the greatest achievement in human history. In universe Category:United Trowo Category:Trowo